


Day 8 - Broken

by ReaderRose



Series: 30 Days of Writing [8]
Category: Undertale (Video Game)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Underfell, Angst, Blindness, Broken Bones, Burns, Control Issues, Depression, Fire, Gen, Healing, Heavy Angst, Implied/Referenced Abuse, Implied/Referenced Suicide, Mild Gore, Papyrus Has Issues, Serious Injuries, Suicide Attempt, Underfell Papyrus, Underfell Undyne, Undyne Has Issues, depressed undyne ending
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-03-09
Updated: 2018-03-09
Packaged: 2019-03-28 23:30:49
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,569
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13914486
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ReaderRose/pseuds/ReaderRose
Summary: UNDERFELL(Depressed Undyne Ending)Undyne isn't doing well, and it doesn't get better.





	Day 8 - Broken

**Author's Note:**

> I really don't like how Papyrus centric this turned out. It wasn't gonna be like that but I am out of time.
> 
> It's the Depressed Undyne Ending!  
> (This picks up some setup from Day 1 - Trust)  
>  
> 
> **Trigger warning for Warnings for some bleak mental health, depression, implied suicide/suicidal thoughts/suicide attempt, arson, fire, forcefeeding, some controlling behavior, descriptions of injuries, loss of vision, dislocated bones... yeah this isn't a pleasant one. Let me know if there's something I forgot to warn for.**

“OPEN THE DOOR!!!”

 

Papyrus flings himself at the door, trying to figure out a good way to break it down, but the house was built to last: against him, against her, against all the underground could throw at it, and that is more than Papyrus can fight, no matter how strong he is. He’s no human. (It wasn't the worst lesson to learn)

“OPEN THE FUCKING DOOR, UNDYNE!!! OPEN IT!!!!”

But she doesn't.

 

He can't hear her in there, but he knows she is. She hadn't left her house in days, and… either she's in there or she's dead, but he refuses to believe Undyne could die. She's not like anyone else. She's as tough as him. Tougher, even! 

So why isn't she getting out?

 

She wouldn't… she wouldn't seal herself inside of that? 

…No! Of course not!

 

His phalanges feel like they've all detached inside his glove from all his pounding, and he knows this isn't going to work. 

The fire is so bright, he can't think straight for a solution. Can't see a path inside that isn't alight and burning. 

He manages to get his cellphone. The fingers in his hand don't move quite right, but Sans is on speed dial. Thank God. Thank God, he never removed him in a huff, because it would take too long to dial.

Sans doesn't pick up. It goes to voicemail, and he shouts “WHEN YOU GET THIS REPORT TO UNDYNE’S RESIDENCE IMMEDIATELY. DO NOT WALK. DO NOT RUN. BE HERE.” 

 

He could have begged, said please, offered incentives, had he had the time to think of it. But it isn't something that comes naturally, and there was no time to plan. He only has to hope his brother would listen. He only has to trust that he would obey the odd demands, that he would see the danger and the emergency. But Papyrus is a stranger to hope and trust, and he isn't about to let the only thing he has resembling a family outside of his burn away in something as mundane as a house fire, no matter how hot. He could use the backup, but if he can't have it, he will save his companion on his own. 

He leaps through a window. Glass and indescribable heat prickle at his bones like no fire had ever done before. But he ignores it, because the kitchen table is on fire, but Undyne is still sitting there, staring into the flame without seeing. 

His reaction is a mixture of disgust and panic at her state. It's bad. It's so, so bad. 

But he grabs her, yanking her away from her seat and out of the heart of the inferno, diving back out of the window just before the building collapses.

 

He puts out the fire that still clings to her and without thinking of the consequences, rushes to to heal her. It's fast and inexact and it won't fix everything without targeting, but he's read a book or two on triage, and he needs to stabilize her, first. 

 

Sans appears from thin, wavering air, and even he seems disturbed by the site, though quickly his usual grin is plastered back into place. 

“boss,” he says in greeting, and doesn't mask the fear and confusion. “you're on fire.”

He hadn't noticed. 

 

“DOESN'T MATTER. DON'T CARE. GET HER TO THE HOUSE. COME BACK FOR ME.”

 

Sans does as he's told, and only after Undyne is out of sight does he gasp in horror at everything surrounding him, and attempt to put out the fire consuming his uniform and cape, popping the fingers back into place in his hand. His beloved uniform does not survive, but he doesn't have the spare emotions to care.

 

* * *

 

Healing Undyne takes a lot. 

 

She's badly burned in ways he didn't know that flesh could be. He cannot fix everything with magic. He's too inexperienced. There's too much the books never covered, and he’s never worked with anything but bone. 

 

He's barely used this… talent, this gift, at all. 

Healing is softness and vulnerability. It appears in monsters who are too weak to conquer and terrorize and take back the surface. It's a mark of failure.

 

Papyrus has never been angrier at himself for fearing that failure. He's treated failure so many times this week, and he's learned that failure is sweet, redeeming, and revitalizing. He wishes he had failed more. 

Then, he could have helped her more than what he manages.   
  


As the days pass, the sentiment doesn't let up. 

Undyne is confined to the couch. She's quiet. She doesn't try to move around. 

Papyrus assumes it is the injuries. If his bones did the things her skin had, he would never want to move them again, for fear they might shatter and dust on the spot. But it is unlike her to try to rest and heal. She's always been impossible to keep down, but he appreciates it. Without having to chase her down, he can spend more time reading and studying and learning about her condition and how to fix it.

 

He tries to call up Doctor Alphys. She's creepy and not someone he wants to associate with, but he knows she and Undyne talk, and maybe Undyne is owed a favor that the doctor can repay. 

He calls a number of times, even from Undyne’s phone, but there's never any answer. 

No matter. He can fix her. 

 

 

The days go by and she looks almost the same as she ever did. There are scars where he didn't get to her in time. There are marks. Discolorations. He's not sure if she can see. Her good eye looks cloudy and she never faces him directly, but then, she never faces him at all. Just lies there.

 

At first he stands by his best assessment: She is resting. She is healing. This is only a good thing. 

But he begins to wonder if he did it all wrong. Her HP is full; her magic is replenished; her limbs are intact. She doesn't move; she doesn't talk. 

 

Sans points out the obvious answer that Papyrus refused to see. 

“you can't fix a soul, bro.”

 

But maybe if he'd been weaker, better, he could have found a way to do that, too. 

  
  


* * *

 

He makes her eat.

She does it, but only after he forces her. When she starts to do it with less force on his end, accepting what she's given with robotic movements, he takes it as a victory. 

He walks her around the house, but never outside. He doesn't want anyone to catch wind that a powerful warrior like her won't defend herself. He tries to see if she would, if it came to it, but all that leaves him with is another opportunity to practice his healing. 

She doesn't complain. He unfortunately can't make her do so, though he tries that, too. 

 

She doesn't do anything, and it's so much like Sans on his worst days… but Undyne doesn't have "worst days." These are her good days. 

 

In the time they spend mostly held up in his house, the queen retakes the throne. She speaks of ‘compassion.” She shouts for change, and she brings it. The Guard is restructured, and Papyrus doesn't know if either still has a job in the new regime, but he's never cared less for his job or hers. It feels pointless to be a part of it after all that's happened. If the guard needs him, they know where to call. 

 

He hears talk at the library, where he spends most time away now. Rumors and muttering he only half tuned in to. They're hiring a new scientist. 

He doesn't put the pieces together at first. Love is weakness. It's patronizing, pitiful, and leaves you caught off guard. And Undyne would have never… she would have never done that. She wouldn't be so stupid. 

 

She's not weak. She's not a failure. She's strong. She’s still here, and she's strong. 

But she also trusted when it was foolish to trust. She was kind when he could not comprehend it. She was strong because she allowed herself weaknesses. Undyne took risks, but she's a hero, and heroes never fail like this. 

 

Heroes are never broken. Isn't that how it's supposed to work?

 

 

* * *

 

 

One day Undyne isn't on the couch, and she isn't in the house. 

 

He looks for her at the old place. Even badly burnt materials were worth salvaging and stealing, so there's nothing there, but he finds her not much further. 

In the dumps, where she shouldn't be.

 

“I miss her.” She says, and he ignores it. He can't… he doesn't know this script. 

He thinks he doesn't get it, even if the confirmation is in front of him. It doesn't make sense to be so weak because of one single other person.

 

“YOU WALKED HERE.” is all he says, not a question, not a statement, and not a complete thought. But he doesn't know how to say it. It means she's getting better. She wasn't walking, and now she is. It's an improvement. It's a good thing. 

But instead he lets her cry as he moves her further from the ledge she happened to find herself by. In her daze. In her blindness. And he doesn't say that the crying is good, too, but he hopes that it is. 

 

This time, he gets her back from the ledge. 

**Author's Note:**

> I had two ideas for today and somehow this is the tame one...
> 
> I'm not really happy with it. I didn't want it to focus so much on Papyrus but that's just the way it is when its me I guess. Sans was gonna have a bigger role but he didn't have the chance with all of Dr. Papyrus's constant hovering.


End file.
